Leading Strategies: Alan Bird

Providing a great customer experience is now just table stakes Customer experience is the buzzword of 2017 and from where I’m standing, it’s not going away. At pretty much every auto industry conference I’ve attended this year, there is, at the very minimum, one guest speaker who takes the stage […]

As the world changes all around us, dealers must embrace new approaches In my last columnl, I discussed how we need to look to the U.S. auto industry and examine both the trends and potential pitfalls to set ourselves up for success here in Canada. I touched on the “less […]

Canadian dealers would be wise to learn the lessons from their U.S. counterparts A few years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Cape Town, South Africa through an organization that supports Canadian athletes in their quest for Olympic gold. While there, I was humbled to visit Robben Island and […]

Winning the game both on the field and in the showroom depends on the right mentality Early in 2016, I decided to go back to coaching and accepted the Head Coach role for a Midget AA Boys hockey team. For any of you familiar with seventeen year-olds, you certainly understand […]

Blogging is a powerful way to boost SEO and raise your industry profile. In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an article about the new opportunity the Internet presented regarding the sharing of information. Though the article focused primarily on how companies could eventually see revenue from the distribution of information, he […]

Millennials will soon be your biggest group of customers. Are you ready to serve them? The first production Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1908. This is the car that everyone remembers because it was, and remains, a symbol of change. It represented a transformation of a way […]

Reflecting on changing consumer expectations in the digital era Earlier this fall, I attended the 11th Annual Google ThinkAuto conference in Toronto. Held at Massey Hall, the event had all the makings of a really cool concert, including a last minute door-opening to create excitement, a countdown clock, ThinkAuto t-shirts […]

I’ve always said the vast majority of dealer principals are some of the greatest entrepreneurs we have in Canada. They are street savvy and understand all aspects of the traditional buying cycle. They sell, buy and repair vehicles every day.